Down Among the Dead

Hail Bristol, a gunrunner who became empress of Indrana, wakes in the custody of the Shen, the most feared alien power humanity has met, after a devastating attack kills many of the people she loved. Isolated and with her temper fraying, she learns of the centuries-long war between the Shen and the Farians, Indrana's oldest allies.

The Shen show her a vision of a terrible future and press her to choose a side. Hail has spent a long time avoiding that decision, and now she has to weigh whom she can trust while planning her escape.

Down Among the Dead is the second book in K. B. Wagers's Farian War trilogy, after There Before the Chaos and before Out Past the Stars. It is a military-flavoured space opera with political maneuvering and close attention to how violence and loss wear on its lead.